Mytestbuddy: Doctor-MBA duo from Gujarat startup to help students with Test Prep

Deep Lodhari comes from that rare breed of doctors who follow their heart and pursue their dreams even if they don’t align with what they have studied. Deep is passionate about changing the way students in India study for their exams and he set out on an endeavor to create a platform for the students. Kaizad Hansotia is an MBA graduate who has worked with a couple of startups and had his vision in sync with Deep’s and hence joined forces. The duo came together and hence Mytestbuddy came into existence.

Deep and Kaizad, Founders of MyTestBuddy

Based out of Baroda, Gujarat, the company is a web and mobile based online educational social network. Mytestbuddy helps students prepare for standardized tests like NEET, IIT-JEE, CAT, GMAT, GRE, Banking tests, etc. Mytestbuddy conducts online test series, provides students with practice tests, question banks, discussion forums and Interactive Report cards. Having started in late 2011, MTB gets more than 50,000 page views a month and has more than 30,000 registered students on the portal.

MTB started out with test prep for medical students and has slowly expanded to other tests as well. Also, apart from the B2C aspect, MTB has a B2B angle with a cloud based SAAS soultions for Educators, Academic Organizations, and Educational Institutions. Via this product, teachers can create an online class, conduct mcq (multiple choice questions) tests, send assignments, etc. This tool is free for the teacher but the pricing model works on a per student login model.

The MTB team is 11 member strong at this point in time with 8 people in the technology team. The company is bootstrapped and is banking on the B2B angle to open up the revenue streams.

There is quite a lot of activity happening in the test prep area in India (Mettl, Edusys, Edukart, DEXL, etc.) as there is a growing segment of parents and students who’re willing to pay to crack these competitive exams. There have been some heavy investments in the field as well and many have their eyes on how this area within education evolves and where will MOOC fit into this.

Jubin is an old timer at YourStory. Deeply entrenched in the Indian startup ecosystem, he has written about more than 1000 startups. With an engineering background and a keen interest in data analysis, his passion for writing and entrepreneurship makes him a perfect match for Yourstory. He operates from the mountains in Dharamshala where he also runs a hackbase. He can be reached on Twitter @jub_in and on mail at jubin@yourstory.com